The Change Of Seasons: Reflecting on Winter as a Catholic

Today, all across the world, Catholics remember the death of Jesus. 

As I have reflected, in the past few days, on the early church, on the disciples as they hid in fear, disbelieving that the One they had walked with, had loved and hailed as King, had allowed Himself to be nailed to a torture device, I consider the darkness that would have fallen on the earth in those days. The darkness, the fear, the doubt.

I've felt that kind of doubt before, I've experience that winter season in my own life, as all the evidence seems to point to a God that is not, after all, victorious. 

"Thus says the Lord, cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a barren bush in the wasteland that enjoys no change of seasons." Jeremiah 17:5-6

It is so easy to look at our lives, in times of hardship, waiting, struggle, pain, and see this season of winter as evidence against God, against His goodness.

But what does nature tell us about seasons?

When I look outside my window, I see a world covered in snow, waiting. The huge poplar trees, so green in the growing months that you all you see through our front window is their thick canopy, is bare.

Nature rests, quietly, skillfully preparing for the next growing season.

Just like nature, all of us experience some form of winter in our lives, we all experience low points. This shouldn't really surprise us, it is mentioned many times in scripture that we will experience tribulation, winter, on this Earth. 

James 1:2-4 

Romans 8:35-39

Psalm 34:17-19

John 16:33

 But, while we all experience winter, do any of us, without God, really experience summer? This, I believe, is what He means when He warns that those who turn away from Him will experience no change of season.

The Depths of Winter in Our Liturgical Year

This day in our liturgical season is the depth of winter. The winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, when the Earth went dark at three o'clock in the afternoon and the world seemed to be cast back into the abyss of pre-Creation.

This day we embrace the cross with our Saviour, enter into the solemn understanding that in order to save us, He had to go to the depths of our human experience, to look all of our sin directly in the eyes. He allowed Himself to be put to death, brutally, horribly, unimaginably.

Imagine the winter of the soul in which our Jesus cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46) into the darkness?

He did not withhold the winter from His son.

And He does not withhold it from His other children.

In those winter seasons, this can feel like evidence against the goodness of God, evidence against His working always for our good.  Yet, just as nature uses winter to prepare, to slow down, to work on the inner while the outer appears dormant. Just as nature weathers all of these changes knowing it is made to withstand, made to flourish once again in the change of seasons, so we know that we are made to weather, withstand, grow stronger, and ultimately, to flourish in our change of seasons.


What a blessing this change of seasons is. What a blessing to experience the growth, the glory of new life which can only be experienced in fullness after the winter season.

What a blessing to be an Easter people. Just as a flower bulb is planted in the darkness of the soil, shrouded and hidden, Jesus was placed in the tomb. And in His time, in His season, He burst forth in Life.

And so must we embrace our own seasons, withstand the storms of the nature of our souls, in order to burst forth with abundant Life, in our season.

Thank you for reading! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me. I would also love to hear any suggestions for posts you would like me to write about. And if you are interested in following along in our daily adventures, follow us on Instagram where I post daily.



God bless,


Olivia Fischer